James Fogle, 75, 'Drugstore Cowboy' Author

By WILLIAM YARDLEY

Published: September 1, 2012

an acclaimed film, died Aug. 23 in the infirmary ward of the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe, Wash. He was 75.

The cause was malignant mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer, the Snohomish County medical examiner's office said.">

James Fogle, a thief and addict who committed real crimes, then turned them into fiction in his novel ''Drugstore Cowboy,'' which became an acclaimed film, died Aug. 23 in the infirmary ward of the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe, Wash. He was 75.

The cause was malignant mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer, the Snohomish County medical examiner's office said.

Mr. Fogle grew up in Olympia, Wash., stole his first car at age 12 and was serving time in a juvenile facility by the time he was a teenager. His mother told interviewers that she regretted not having intervened when his father beat him. He began writing early, but he was nearly 40 before his work caught the eye of someone who could promote it beyond prison walls.

Daniel Yost, a freelance writer who shared screenwriting credit on ''Drugstore Cowboy'' with the film's director, Gus Van Sant, said in an interview on Monday that Thomas E. Gaddis, the author of ''Birdman of Alcatraz,'' received an unsolicited novel in the mail in 1973 from an inmate serving time in Walla Walla, Wash.

That first novel, never published, was called ''Satan's Sandbox,'' and it was one of several written by Mr. Fogle on which Mr. Yost eventually based screenplays.

''Drugstore Cowboy,'' which starred Matt Dillon as the leader of an inept band of thieves and addicts who stole prescription drugs from pharmacies across the Northwest, was the only one made into a film, released in 1989. The book was also Mr. Fogle's only published novel; it came out after the film received wide critical acclaim.

''All the dialogue was there,'' Mr. Yost said of the original manuscript. ''The story was pretty complete.''

James Fogle was born on Sept. 29, 1936, in rural Wisconsin. He spent most of his life in jail or prison. When ''Drugstore Cowboy'' was released, a special screening was held for him and his fellow inmates at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

Mr. Yost said Mr. Fogle made very little money on the book or the movie, and police records show that he stayed true to character long after his moment of fame. He had been free for three years when he was arrested in 2010 for stealing narcotics from a pharmacy in the Seattle suburbs.

He and another man locked employees in a storeroom after binding their hands with plastic ties. When officers stopped Mr. Fogle, he was hooded, wore a pink bandanna over his face and had a BB gun. He was holding trash cans filled with drugs in both hands.

''If you're a lawyer or a doctor and spent a lot of time learning what you do in school, you don't stop being a lawyer or doctor,'' Mr. Yost said Mr. Fogle told him late in life. ''He said juvie hall was a school for learning to be a criminal.''

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.

PHOTO: James Fogle in court in 2010. He turned his crimes into fiction. (PHOTOGRAPH BY STUART ISETT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)

an acclaimed film, died Aug. 23 in the infirmary ward of the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe, Wash. He was 75.

The cause was malignant mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer, the Snohomish County medical examiner's office said.">